Dylan
My daughter’s dark eyes skimmed my face seriously, and I felt the quiet weigh me down as I waited for a second time to see if this little girl that I already loved would accept me.
“I like you very much,” Fern said decidedly. “So I’m pleased you’re my dad.” With that, she hugged me, and I squeezed her tight. She asked excitedly, “Can I put on my party dress now?”
Cherry had designed and made her a special princess dress just like Elsa’s, her favorite Disney princess, and she’d been desperate to put it on since waking. But Cherry had rightly said she could wear it after pancakes. The syrup stains on Fern’s pajamas showed what a wise decision that had been.
“Go ahead, Sweetie,” I said, borrowing Cherry’s endearment for her. Because she was mine too, and she now knew it.
As Fern rushed off excitedly, I collapsed back into the sofa, feeling flattened by the huge wave of relief that hit me. Cherry stroked my face, smiling at me tenderly.
“You’re a great dad, by the way,” my mate whispered, and my contentedness lapped at me even more.
But despite Cherry’s tender words, I knew that I needed to broach more with her concerning Fern. Our daughter had mentioned a special gift earlier, and I did have one I intended to give her. But I needed to talk to Cherry about it first. And I knew it would start a whole other conversation. One I didn’t know we were ready for. Yet, if we weren’t ready for it, I feared we’d never be.
Taking a breath, I said, “Incidentally, I do have another gift for Fern later.” I pulled a necklace on a leather strong out of my pocket. I’d retrieved it from my house earlier in the week.
Cherry stared at the crescent moon and wolf pendant. “The Alpha-in- training necklace.” Cherry’s voice was quiet. Subdued.
“I want to give it to her later today,” I explained. “I want to tell her it’s a special family heirloom that it belonged to her grandparents. And all those in the Starsmoon line. I’d like us to tell her together when the time’s right about her shifter heritage. I know we’ve dropped enough on her plate for now. But in the future, I want her to know all of herself.”
Cherry was attuned to every word I said, her expression growing increasingly strained.
I hated seeing my mate look so tense, but I forced myself to ask the other question I’d been concerned about. “I need to ask; why doesn’t Fern have our pack’s scent?”
Cherry’s gaze dipped down as if she couldn’t face looking at me. “I went to a witch in the Mitte District here in Berlin to get a scent blocker,” she confessed. “It conceals Fern’s shifter scent from other preternaturals.”
“Is it permanent?" I asked. Not just thinking of myself and how I wanted our daughter to have her whole heritage open to her but also of how Fern might feel when she was older if that part of her had been taken away by her mom.
“By Nuu-Chah, no,” Cherry exclaimed. “We can get a spell to reverse it. I’d never have made a decision like that for Fern.”
I laid my hands comfortingly on her shoulders. “I know that, love. It’s just I also know now how scared you must have been that if the pack and I knew that Fern was my daughter, we’d insist on her being raised as part of Starsmoon.”
Cherry sighed and admitted, “I did worry. I mean, I used to.”
“I'd never take Fern away from you,” I held her silver eyes, needing to reassure her and show her that she could trust me completely.
But I knew I also needed to be honest about how I felt. I loved my mate and my daughter more than anything in the world, but I was the Alpha of Starsmoon. I would eventually need to return to my pack.
And besides that, I wanted to tell Fern about her heritage. I wanted to tell her she was my heir and next in line to be the Alpha of Starsmoon. Like Cherry said, that wasn’t something she had the right to take away from her.
So I said, “But I hope with all my heart that both you and Fern will come back to the pack with me.”
*************
Cherry
I turned the lamp on my desk as evening fell. I was alone in my studio. Maisy and the sales assistants had gone home hours ago. I should too, but… I lingered. I was only half-heartedly working on the design in front of me. Instead, I was thinking about the request Dylan had made a few days ago: to come back to the pack. I’d known the request was coming for weeks. But it hadn’t made it any easier to hear. I’d told him I’d think about it, and I was. Incessantly.
We’d had a lovely time a few days ago as a real family on Fern’s birthday. I loved watching my daughter play party games with her friends and bask for the first time in the knowledge that she had her mom and dad there. And I enjoyed basking in Dylan’s attention too. Thoughts of the way we’d made love that night, tenderly, lovingly, knowing that we were part of a family we’d made together had been beautiful. The way he’d caressed me with such tenderness and reverence had made me feel like a Moon Goddess.
Concerning our extended family, too, Dylan’s request to come back with him to the pack seemed to make sense. Our moving back to Seattle would make my dad’s life so much easier. I knew he’d been willing to relocate to Berlin for his granddaughter and me, but I knew, too, he was happy where he was in Seattle. He’d had a whole lifetime there, and the house he lived in was full of memories of my late mom and of my childhood. Over the last few weeks, I’d told my dad that Dylan and I were making a go of our relationship here in Berlin, and he’d been pleased for me, promising to come out and see us soon.